Railway car



W. S. ADAMS March 11, 1930.

RA I LWAY CAR Filed Aug. 24, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet Ewen-2'67, Warsaw Z3 Mm?? March 11, 1930. WSADAMS 1,750,559"

RA I LWAY CAR Filed Au 24, 1923 s Shets-Sheet 2 WWWIWvvWWW March 11, 1930. w, 5, ADAMS 1,750,559

RAI LWAY CAR Filed Aug. 24, 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 ,jme 7:57; JfZzZZErEfldama,

Mums-n mlmm Patented Mar. 11, 1 930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WALTER s. ADAMS, 0P PHILADEL HIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR r0 THE J. G.

BRILL COMPANY, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENN- SYLVANIA RAILWAY CAR Application filed August 24, 1928. Serial No. 301,738.

"in full lines how the wheels appear on a straightaway, and in broken lines, howthey ad'ust themselves to curves in the track;

. ig. 3 is a view taken on line 33 of Fig. 1 and illustrating the wheel mechanism on an enlarged scale; I

Fig. 4 is a detailed showing of the wheel mechanism of Fig. 3 taken at 90 thereto;

Fig. 5 is a detailed section of the spring ten sioning means; while Figs. 6 and 7 are sectional viewstaken at 'ri ht angles to each other, illustrating the details of the universal driving mechanism.

The present invention, while it of course may be utilized with any form of car, is particularly designed for use with cars of rela tively great length, yet still employing altoether only four wheels, rather than the usual out or six wheel truck at each end. Such four wheel cars were well known in the earlier days of locomotion, but because of the comparatively close spacing of the sets of wheels, they could be rigidly fixed to their axles and yet accommodate themselves to curves without a great deal of wear or tear on their flanges or on the rails.

With the increased length which is the modern trend and the consequent increased spacing between "front and "rear wheels, it has been found necessary to provide some means for permitting the wheels to yield to the curves.

, In Figs. land 2, l-is the body of the car and 2 the base. If desired, sills 5 and 6 may be employed to brace the car body.

On the base 2 by any suitable means may be supported the axles 3 and 4. Inasmuch as they are both alike,-the invention will be explained. onlywith references to those wheels carried by axle As better shown in Figs. 3 5, the axles 4 support the body of the car by suitable means such as springs 7 and 8. Extending horizontally from the axle in the presentinstance are brackets 9 and 10, which have openings 11 i and 12, respectively. Thimbles 13 and 14 are each provided with an outwardly-extending annular flange 15, which bear against the respective brackets 9 and 10, and are further provided with a body portion 16, and an internal annular flange 17 at the end of the body portion, whichforms a shoulder for the sleeves on the rod. A goiled spring 18is located between the flanges 15, and due to its compression, firmly but yieldingly retains the thimbles 13 and 14 against the brackets 9 and 10. The spring holds the wheels in alignment on straight rails and ofiers resilient resistance to thewheels' when assuming a radial position on curves.

Internally threaded sleeves 19 and 20 may be arranged to have their inner ends abut the shoulders on inner faces of .fianges .-17 of thimbles 13 and 14, and through these may be threaded the connecting rod 21, having threaded portions 22 and 23.

The rod 21 may be pivotally connected to the knuckles of wheels 24 and 25 by any convenient means such as forks 26,26 and pins 27, 27, which connect the forks 26 to lugs 28 on the wheel knuckles;

The axle 4 is arranged for pivotal connection to the wheel knuckles by means such as trunnions 29 extending from the wheel hub receiving portions of the knuckles and se cured .in the apertured ring-like lugs 30 in which the axle l'terminates. An arm 30 carries one of these lugs, while the other is formed directly on the end of axle 4. v It will be' seen that ordinarily the rod 21 and hence wheels 24 and 25 are retained in their normal position. As the wheels follow' movement to rod 21 against the resistance of spring 18, ,which is placed under compression by either thimble 13 or 14 regardless of the direction of track curvature. The force of the spring will tend to restore the wheels to their normal right angular relation with respect to the axle 4, upon the track again straightening out.

It has been known to employ two springs 011 a thrust rod, with a division plate between them, so that upon rounding a curve in one direction, one spring will be under compression and the other under tension, the reactions being reversed upon rounding a curve extending in the other direction. However,

' this action gives rise to undesirable bumps and vibrations, which are avoided by the novel construction of this invention.

In the instance that it is desirable to supply the vehicle with motive force, motors 31 and 32 may be provided having drive shafts 33 and 34 extending longitudinally from both ends thereof. These shafts may terminate in gears 35 and 36, meshing with gears 37 and 38, which transmit the driving thrust to the wheels of the car through any suitable means. As illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7, these means take a form employin universal oint, which form is fully disclosed in Letters Patent No. 1,225,303 granted to me on May 8, 1917. Inasmuch as the precise form of driving means is not an essential feature of this invention, no attempt is made to describe the mechanism in detail, reliance being had upon the above-entitled patent for this information.

As will be seen, a novel means for controlling the wheels of a railway vehicle has been produced, and since the invention is susceptible to numerous modifications, it is in-..

tended that it be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an axle structure having wheel mounting knuckles at its opposed ends, means on said axle for supporting a shaft, said shaft having opposed threads near its center and being pivotally connected at its opposite ends ends, a shaft extending through said brackets and being threaded'at portions adjacent said apertures, locking means threaded on the threaded portions of said shaft, a spring around said shaft between said brackets, and thimbles engaging the ends of said spring, and bearing against the brackets, said looking means clamping the thimbles against the spring, the shaft being pivotally engaged with lugs formed on said wheel knuckles, the apertures of said brackets opening through the ends of the brackets whereby said shaft may be readily removed and inserted, the thimbles having portions to engage against adjacent faces of the brackets.

- WALTER S. ADAMS.

their outer ends, a shaft extending through said brackets and being threaded at portions adjacent said apertures, locking means threaded on the threaded portions of said I shaft, a spring around said shaft between said brackets, and thimbles engaging the ends of said spring, and bearin ets, said locking means c amping the thimbles against the s ring, the shaft being pivotally enga d wit lugs formed. on sand wheel knuc es.

3. In-an axle structure having wheel mounting knuckles at the end of the axle, opposed brackets on said axle near-the center thereof, said brackets being aperturednear their outer against the brack- 

